Blogging the democratic revolution
Kirk just yesterday wrote a great article detailing the way that the U.S. strategy is moving forward to deal with political reform in Egypt. I think linking our aid to moves in the direction of sustained political openness is definitely the best way to go. In light of reading his article, I though I’d check…
Your profession is a noble one. A free press is foundational to a free society. In challenging powerful institutions to answer the hard questions others fear to ask, journalists have led to the collapse of corrupt leaders and helped ensured our democracy. You have done so by reporting the truth in spite of the threats…
I have traditionally been a supporter of the foreign aid that the United States gives to the Egyptian government, mainly on the premise that the soft authoritarianism of Hosni Mubarak’s government was the only alternative to an Islamist takeover which could throw the region into war. Following the 9/11 attacks and further reflection, however, I…
Article 72 of Hugo Chavez’s custom made constitution reads “All magistrates and other offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.” With such revolutionary prevision as background let me expand into the most notorious case of political prosecution in today’s Venezuela. Since there are no precedents of a systematic attempt at silencing and imprisoning…
As I mentioned here last April, Luis Ramirez at Voice of America is the best China reporter there is. I noted his daring efforts to report the truth about what is going on in China and and cited his long string of impressive pieces. I was right. Luis has now won one of the most…
Flying to Sacremento in the morning. Updates will be around lunch time! UPDATE: Missed my first flight so I had to go through Vegas. But they have wi-fi in the airport. I’m lovin’ this. I have to board for Sacremento in a minute, so it’s relatively impossible to scramble my thoughts together into a coherent…
This makes political influential number three after Rafik Hariri and Samir Kassir. Former Community Party leader George Hawi was killed in a car-bomb blast in Beirut’s Wata Mosseitbeh middle-class neighborhood at midmorning Tuesday in the latest link of a chain of political assassinations that rocked the nation in connection with Syria’s expulsion from Lebanon. He…
I’m going to take Gary’s banner and run with it here: how is it that the blogosphere is getting this story so wrong? I usually don’t like to open my mouth too wide too quickly, but when the media isn’t even shooting, the blogosphere simply can’t afford to miss the mark. What I mean by…
Tony predicted an Aoun loss, so obviously that was going to be the outcome. Er, and it was! Saad Hariri’s alliance swept all 28 seats, cementing him in parliament with a 72 seat majority in parliament and shutting out the possibility of an Aoun 1/3 veto. Beirut, Lebanon – The anti- Syrian Opposition dealt a…
Andy at Siberian Light is hosting this week’s carnival of revolutions! Check it out for all of the past week’s democracy goodness. And Gary Metz has the Iran week in review up. Gateway Pundit has news up about Rice pushing democracy in Egypt and more protests in Bahrain. Bingo quote: “For 60 years, my country,…
I will be updating this post with more pictures as I find them and as they are sent to me. So if you have photos from anti-regime demonstrations, send them to me! Click “more” for the photos.
I usually do an analysis every week right before each election round in Lebanon; this being the last. However, Tony at Across The Bay, who is a Ph.D. candidate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, has an analysis that I agree with so much that I asked him if I could simply reproduce it here. It…
Overview: According to the document released by the Iranian government, a polling station for the presidential elections in Iran was located near me in Tucson, Arizona at the Southern Arizona Association for Visually Impaired (SAAVI). I drove there around 9am and the receptionist confirmed that, indeed, voting would be from 3pm-7pm. I arrived back on…
To hear the OAS tell it, Lucio Gutierrez was this noble guy who just happened to be president of Ecuador and due to crazy people out there, got overthrown, and isn’t it a terrible thing when presidents, no matter what they act like, get thrown out? Instability, instability, oh is anything worse than instability? Well,…
Bolivia has been a favorite host-target of Sandalista parasites for years and years. Because no news organization ever cared about this country, it was they who framed the news and the debate about what was really going on in Bolivia. They tell us Bolivia’s just a simple story of the rich oppressing the poor, all…
Heading out there now. Full report to come. UPDATE: I’m back. I acted like a freelance journalist and sat down with the poll monitor for an interview for about an hour and a half. Am working on the report of what I learned about this process, and most importantly, what goes on inside this guy’s…
Whenever Iran has an election of some sort, its agents host polling stations all around America attempting to further legitimize itself. Last time this happened, authorities were able to bust up many of them. The SMCCDI has information on how you can help intervene. The list of cities and addresses where these polling stations will…
From Reuters: Unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among the first to vote, told Iranians they would be endorsing not just their chosen candidate, but their country’s Islamic system. “Whoever you vote for among those seven candidates, it’s a vote for him, the Islamic republic and the constitution,” he said after using a special ballot…
Gary Metz of Regime Change Iran has the opinions of several Iranian bloggers who seem to express the sentiments of quite a bit of the electorate. Here are the ones he posted below: The Adventures of Behi — Tonight, I was talking to Mrs. Behi about the decision we shall make for the election tomorrow;…
Al-Hayat has reported that the Moroccan government has prohibited the daughter of the head of a banned Islamist organization from travelling to Spain because of critical comments about the government (“Morocco Restricts Nadia Yassin from Travelling Due to Her Statements Against the Regime“). The article notes that Nadia Yassin, the daughter of Shaikh Abd al-Islam…
An unbelievable 1150 people have been murdered in cold blood by police in just one Venezuelan state. The death squads, which have never before been seen in Venezuela until Hugo Chavez came along, are now spiraling out of control as lawlessness reigns. Activists are taking it to the National Assembly. Alek Boyd has the news…
Nicaraguans in their thousands marched to defend democracy! They don’t want the slimey, evil, communist Sandinistas to take over on legal technicalities. Right now, the Marxist Sandinistas have got President Enrique Bolanos backed into a corner trying to force him to resign. It’s Bolivian stuff. Nicaraguans do not want to lose their president and then…
This item on Zimbabwe’s smoking ruins made my blood go cold. Read it here. Hat tip: Real Clear
A fantastic post by Gary Metz, and heartening news that the U.S. is really going to stand by the Iranian people just as they are about to boycott the election in massive droves. In a unique display of unity in broadcasting the same feed into Iran. These broadcasters are providing a marathon of reports into…
I just received this email from the Young Ethiopian Diasporans relating the declining situation in Ethiopia following the brutal murders of dozens of protestors by the authorities. Here is the latest, as Jimmy Carter looks on calmly: When all else fails, beat up reporters and take 3000 prisoners. Last Friday, Ethiopian PM Meles stated that:…